THE INTEGRAL ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR IMPACT ON LEAN IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS

ABSTRACT The increasingly competitive nature of the manufacturing industry has forced manufacturers to examine alternatives to traditional management philosophies. Although lean\u27s success had been proven it was not uncommon for companies that opt to implement lean concepts to meet with mixed results and sometimes even outright failure. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between organizational characteristics and issues associated with lean implementation. The study identified the following organizational characteristics (a) organizational leadership, (b) organizational culture, and (c) organizational change and examined the role each played in lean implementation efforts. The study also looked at sixteen individual (d) intrinsic organizational characteristics to determine the extent to which each impacted lean implementation efforts. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative research tools. The qualitative component utilized both document analysis and interviews. The interviews were conducted with area business leaders who were members of the Department of Technology\u27s Industrial Advisory Committee at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The quantitative component utilized a separate on-line survey that was developed and administered to members of the Illinois Manufacturers\u27 Association. Results indicated highly capable leadership was the number one indicator of success for organizations that made the transition to lean. Other key factors included communication channels with an effective feedback system, the development of collaborative relationships between management and employees, being well versed in the practice of change management, and understanding how to effect change of cultural mores within an organization. The implications of understanding how the organizational characteristics discussed in the study affected lean implementation empowered organizations to effect change more successfully. The goal of implementing lean successfully required much more than a step by step process of implementing the lean tools in a particular order. It required a broad understanding of the things which cannot be seen; things such as, what constitutes highly capable leadership, knowing how to change the mores of organizational culture, and understanding how to overcome the barriers to successful change management. Understanding these complex relationships provided the basis upon which to advance lean implementation theory where it had been only marginally successful

Supersymmetric approximations to the 3D supersymmetric O(N) model

We develop several non-perturbative approximations for studying the dynamics of a supersymmetric O(N) model which preserve supersymmetry. We study the phase structure of the vacuum in both the leading order in large-N approximation as well as in the Hartree approximation, and derive the finite temperature renormalized effective potential. We derive the exact Schwinger-Dyson equations for the superfield Green functions and develop the machinery for going beyond the next to leading order in large-N approximation using a truncation of these equations which can also be derived from a two-particle irreducible effective action.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

The Integration of a Lean Manufacturing Competency-based Training Course into University Curriculum

The manufacturing industry has become extremely competitive in nature and each company’s survival depends on gaining an edge in their respective field. Lean manufacturing has emerged as the leading management philosophy in this struggle. The original model of lean, called the Toyota Production System, is utilized by the phenomenally successful automotive manufacturer Toyota and many others have followed suite. There is a need for a course in schools that offer manufacturing curriculum which will integrate the lean concepts with the current manufacturing program of study. Lean is a proven management strategy and should be offered as a course of its own. Lean can be taught using both knowledge-based and competencybased learning styles. Through the use of academic, simulation, and real life examples these concepts can be understood. This research examines these issues and illustrates an implementation model which can be used to accomplish this goal utilizing these same lean principles

Flight test techniques for the X-29A aircraft

The X-29A advanced technology demonstrator is a single-seat, single-engine aircraft with a forward-swept wing. The aircraft incorporates many advanced technologies being considered for this country's next generation of aircraft. This unusual aircraft configuration, which had never been flown before, required a precise approach to flight envelope expansion. This paper describes the real-time analysis methods and flight test techniques used during the envelope expansion of the x-29A aircraft, including new and innovative approaches

MR449: Allagash Wilderness Waterway Visitor Survey 2019

Quality in outdoor recreation can be defined as the degree to which recreation opportunities provide the experiences for which they are designed and managed. Key to protecting the backcountry experiences is an understanding of the different types of visitors to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, each one with different needs and expectations, and the different levels of importance they place on recreation opportunities and conditions. In this report, visitor management implications and suggested further research focus on the diversity of use of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in order to maximize the quality of the visitor experiences while protecting the unique natural setting.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscreports/1030/thumbnail.jp

Renormalized broken-symmetry Schwinger-Dyson equations and the 2PI-1/N expansion for the O(N) model

We derive the renormalized Schwinger-Dyson equations for the one- and two-point functions in the auxiliary field formulation of $\lambda \phi^4$ field theory to order 1/N in the 2PI-1/N expansion. We show that the renormalization of the broken-symmetry theory depends only on the counter terms of the symmetric theory with $\phi = 0$. We find that the 2PI-1/N expansion violates the Goldstone theorem at order 1/N. In using the O(4) model as a low energy effective field theory of pions to study the time evolution of disoriented chiral condensates one has to {\em{explicitly}} break the O(4) symmetry to give the physical pions a nonzero mass. In this effective theory the {\em additional} small contribution to the pion mass due to the violation of the Goldstone theorem in the 2-PI-1/N equations should be numerically unimportant

The Incidence of Low-Metallicity Lyman-Limit Systems at z~3.5: Implications for the Cold-Flow Hypothesis of Baryonic Accretion

Cold accretion is a primary growth mechanism of simulated galaxies, yet observational evidence of "cold flows" at redshifts where they should be most efficient ($z=2$-4) is scarce. In simulations, cold streams manifest as Lyman-limit absorption systems (LLSs) with low heavy-element abundances similar to those of the diffuse IGM. Here we report on an abundance survey of 17 H I-selected LLSs at $z=3.2$-4.4 which exhibit no metal absorption in SDSS spectra. Using medium-resolution spectra obtained at Magellan, we derive ionization-corrected metallicities (or limits) with a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo sampling that accounts for the large uncertainty in $N_{\rm HI}$ measurements typical of LLSs. The metal-poor LLS sample overlaps with the IGM in metallicity and is best described by a model where $71^{+13}_{-11}\%$ are drawn from the IGM chemical abundance distribution. These represent roughly half of all LLSs at these redshifts, suggesting that 28-40$\%$ of the general LLS population at $z\sim3.7$ could trace unprocessed gas. An ancillary sample of ten LLSs without any a priori metal-line selection is best fit with $48^{+14}_{-12}\%$ of metallicities drawn from the IGM. We compare these results with regions of a moving-mesh simulation; the simulation finds only half as many baryons in IGM-metallicity LLSs, and most of these lie beyond the virial radius of the nearest galaxy halo. A statistically significant fraction of all LLSs have low metallicity and therefore represent candidates for accreting gas; large-volume simulations can establish what fraction of these candidates actually lie near galaxies and the observational prospects for detecting the presumed hosts in emission.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures; Submitted to ApJ; Corrected figure 16

Thiosulfoxide (Sulfane) Sulfur: New Chemistry and New Regulatory Roles in Biology

The understanding of sulfur bonding is undergoing change. Old theories on hypervalency of sulfur and the nature of the chalcogen-chalcogen bond are now questioned. At the same time, there is a rapidly expanding literature on the effects of sulfur in regulating biological systems. The two fields are inter-related because the new understanding of the thiosulfoxide bond helps to explain the newfound roles of sulfur in biology. This review examines the nature of thiosulfoxide (sulfane, S0) sulfur, the history of its regulatory role, its generation in biological systems, and its functions in cells. The functions include synthesis of cofactors (molybdenum cofactor, iron-sulfur clusters), sulfuration of tRNA, modulation of enzyme activities, and regulating the redox environment by several mechanisms (including the enhancement of the reductive capacity of glutathione). A brief review of the analogous form of selenium suggests that the toxicity of selenium may be due to over-reduction caused by the powerful reductive activity of glutathione perselenide